While the state of Maryland legalized water threads in 2023, individual districts have to choose – and so far only Baltimore City has done this.
Rockville, Md.-Montgomery County, Maryland, consider to be the first jurisdiction in the DC region (but in the state second), which enables a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional cremation: water that is known as alkaline hydrolysis.
While the state of Maryland legalized water threads in 2023, individual districts have to choose – and so far only Baltimore City has done this. Now Montgomery's district leaders are working on changing this.
If you've never heard of water -boiling, you are not alone. Currently, only one funeral company in Maryland (or in the region) offers the service: Joseph H. Brown Jr. Funeral Home in Baltimore.
“If families call this funeral home, they usually only ask for cremation,” said Joseph H. Brown Jr., the corpse's fourth generation and owner of the Western Baltimore Business. “Then we ask: fire or water?”
Brown said that many people don't even know that water threads are an option. Technically referred to as alkaline hydrolysis, the process uses water and a chemical solution with a high pH value. The body is placed in a sealed container and the temperature is raised to about 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The result is a gentle breakdown of organic water -based materials.
“It creates a wave that floods the body again and again,” said Brown. “It washes the proteins of the body away.”
The body is dissolved within three hours and only leaves bones behind, which can be processed in ashes and can be traced back to relatives in an urn, just like with flame -based cremation.
Watering creates fewer emissions than traditional cremation and is less resource -intensive than funeral.
“It is actually a welcome addition to the sewage system,” said Brown. “People rinse more into the sewage system every day than what we output from this process.”
The ashes are chemically identical to those made by fire.
“There is no difference in the end result,” said Brown. “You still go into the same ship.”
Montgomery County could be the next
The council member of Montgomery County, Natali Fani-González, has introduced laws to enable funeral companies in the district of water.
“At the moment, even if a funeral home wanted to integrate water, it cannot legally not-it is not in our County code or land use regulations,” said Fani-González.
Your calculation would update the local code and delete the way for funeral home for the Green Cremation option. If Montgomery County is adopted, he would only the second jurisdiction in Maryland -and the first in the DC -U -Bahn region -to allow this.
Fani-González hopes that the Council will pass the measure until the end of summer.
“This is an environmentally conscious way of taking care of our loved ones,” she said. “It is time that we give families more opportunities.”